Terrorist Surveillance Program; What’s Going On?

A knowledgeable reader–a former professional in the area–sent us his thoughts on the likely significance of Attorney General Gonzales’ disclosure that the Terrorist Surveillance Program is being moved under the jurisdiction of the FISA court, which we wrote about here. His comments, while necessarily speculative, strike us as highly plausible:

It’s difficult to be certain exactly what is going on here, since the letter is intentionally vague and no details were provided in the background briefing. It is more than likely that there will be a leak, and then we may have a better idea.
In the meantime, it’s worth pointing out that the letter appears to track the language of of a specific section of the FISA statute, 1801(f)(1):